Tag: Group 2

We see in chapter 11 that androids have taken over an office building and have started a fake police operation. Even with Rick and Resch knowing Garland is an android, they don’t execute him immediately. Garland is able to get the drop on Rick and but ultimately gets shot in the head. Resch can’t get over that “For three years I’ve been working under the direction of androids” (Dick 137). Really Resch is just overthinking the idea because Rick tells him that “According to Garland, a bunch of them came to earth together and that it’s only been three months” (Dick 137). Later in chapter 13 when Pris is telling Isidore that more androids are coming to earth, it’s telling me that the androids will be able to outsmart the humans by blending in with them. We see that it’s starting to become more difficult for the bounty hunters to do their jobs.

With the androids showing more human like characteristics, do you think we will see Rick move further away from his duties, and if so what will be his next chapter? Also what is the possibility that the androids will come together and plan some sort of extreme plan against the humans?

In chapter 12 of Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep Rick Deckard and Fellow bounty hunter Phil Resch are in pursuit of Miss Luft, an android. The two hunters make there way to the Museum where they have been told they would find her in the Munch exhibit. During there search at the museum, Phil asks Rick if he has “ever heard of an andy having a pet of any sort?” Rick informs Phil that he indeed has but it is very rare and generally failed over time because the andy is unable to keep the animal alive for a long period of time. Phil counters Rick claiming he has kept his pet squirrel Buffy alive and well. Phil claims that he “grooms and combs” the squirrel everyday which in a sense makes him empathetic. We know from previous chapters that Phil is just and andy with false memories which could account to his empathy to an animal.

My question for the class is, can Phil actually be a human but with some andy qualities? Or is he an andy with human qualities? And furthermore, we know that the test administered to the andy’s has it flaws so do you think that aided to the determination of Phil being and andy?

In Chapter 10 of Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, our main protagonist Rick Deckard meets fellow bounty hunter Phil Resch at the Mission Street Hall of Justice. Deckard is being suspected of being a false bounty hunter. Resch enters the scene, and immediately gives his fellow bounty hunter the benefit of the doubt, saying after hearing of Polokov’s retirement, “Potokov struck me as cold. Extremely celebral and calculating; detached.” (Dick 117) On the list of targets Deckard has included Resch’s boss, Garland. Once the results of the bone marrow test came in reveling that Potokov was indeed an android, Garland shuts the woman from the lab down, before she can give a detailed analysis. Deckard and Resch continue on to compare the different android tests.

Once entering the scene, Resch is presented with a great deal of information: there is a man claiming to be a bounty hunter, nobody from the agency knows him or his boss, and this man just killed a seemingly innocent person, using a seemingly unknown test as evidence to claim that the victim was actually an android. On top of this, the man has a list of targets, including his boss. Despite the scenario, Resch remains calm and gives the man, Deckard, the benefit of the doubt, unlike his boss. We know from Chapter 11 that Garland is on the list for good reason (he is an android) and that Deckard suspects Resch of being an android. In this complicated scenario, would android or human qualities have helped Resch justify the situation? Did Resch show empathy for Deckard, or did he show no empathy, and simply use factual reasoning to side with Deckard?

In Chapter 12 of Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Andriods Dream of Electric Sheep, both Resch and Deckard escape the faux police department and search for Luba Luft. While on the hunt, Resch becomes fixated on a familiar oil painting. The painting is described in great detail and Dick makes it a point to take his time and describe every feeling the painting evokes. The “creature” is “contained by its own howl” and “screamed in isolation” (Dick 130). Shortly after examining the painting, Resch says, “I think that this is how and andy must feel” (Dick 130).

Based on previous knowledge and how the novel describes Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream, why do you think Dick purposefully took his time to describe every detail about the painting? Is it supposed to represent the feelings of an android like Resch says? Or do you think the metaphor is for Deckard as he was previously thrust into an almost alternate reality while originally trying to retire Luft?